Re-building Eden - The Great Utopian Cockup

John Taylor Gatto continues to offer his perspective of the elements of contemporary society and religion and elucidates the conflicting notions supporting present-day ideologies of education. It is a fascinating read for students of the modern school system. In determining a first-line of defense of "Western Values", we must come to understand the philosophical and moral precepts underlying our belief systems, both Christian and non-Christian alike. Gatto presents an historical view, not from a religious, rather from a rational perspective.

If we have any realistic notion of opposing the utopia-building ideas underpinning the present objectives of the globalist NEA's educational philosophy, we must come to know our own strengths and weaknesses. I think too, it will require a synthesis of old and new ideas; understanding the historical skein of the last 200 years is the key to opposing all radical ideologies currently focussed on de-humanizing our children, and thus our society-at-large.

Because it's Sunday, and the air here on the high plains is crisp and glorious, I'll begin with the hope-full end of Gatto's insightful essay,

"Against School"

How public education cripples our kids, and why

By John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto is a former New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year and the author, most recently, of The Underground History of American Education. He was a participant in the Harper's Magazine forum "School on a Hill," which appeared in the September 2003 issue.

Mr. Gatto:

...Now for the good news. Once you understand the logic behind modern schooling, its tricks and traps are fairly easy to avoid. School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they'll never be bored. Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology - all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid. Challenge your kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues. Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can.

First, though, we must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands. Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants. Don't let your own have their childhoods extended, not even for a day. If David Farragut could take command of a captured British warship as a pre-teen, if Thomas Edison could publish a broadsheet at the age of twelve, if Ben Franklin could apprentice himself to a printer at the same age (then put himself through a course of study that would choke a Yale senior today), there's no telling what your own kids could do. After a long life, and thirty years in the public school trenches, I've concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven't yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves. read the rest

Trackposted to Right Pundits, Webloggin, Dumb Ox Daily News, Walls of the City, and Public Eye, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe, Woman Honor Thyself

Consent of the Governed

This is a picture, as I am sure you are aware, of the White House. The President of the United States lives there. There have been many men who occupied this dwelling - all at the pleasure of the American people. The President is just a man. He puts his pants on the same way I do - one leg at a time. He is not omnipotent. He is subject to the same laws as any sovereign citizen. He has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, and he swore to do this with his hand on the Bible. We must remember that.

We must come to understand, and understand it well, that we are losing our freedom. Our inalienable rights, as proclaimed in the declaration of Independence, are about to be taken away. This hasn't happened overnight - no, it has been accomplished under a cloak of darkness and secrecy. We have become too complacent, too trusting of our so-called leaders in Washington, DC. We are being sold out, as we hunker down in our little worlds, hoping this will prove to be unwarranted fears.

When I took stock of the perilous state of the union, I decided to go to war. I thought, as long as I can fight, I will fight. The first order of war is to understand the enemy - his plans, his goals, his strategy and tactics - and foremost, his objective. What does he want? Why does he want it? How does he plan to achieve his objective? How may we defeat the enemy?

His objective, simply stated, is power. Power to rule the world by decree, using whatever force necessary. Their method is salesmanship. But in order for a sale to be consummated, the buyer and seller must consent to the terms. If we do not consent, there is no sale.

Take a look around you. Do you have any confidence in the direction in which America is heading? Do you feel you can make a substantive contribution to keep America, America? You are not helpless. You hold something vital to the enemy's success: your willingness to follow.

If you need inspiration, go back and read, online, Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.

As I have said before, I got to the dance late. But not too late, I can still make a difference. There is time yet to defeat the enemy. The enemy must have a willing populace to achieve their goal, because willingness to march to their drummer's cadence is a key component of their takeover. That is the enemy's Achilles' Heel. But if our nation is turned over to the UN-based New World Order, then we are going to be in a pickle. Because a global government does not need our consent.

We are sovereign citizens with inalienable rights. As President Calvin Coolidge said:

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.

We must suck it up, and learn how to first mentally, withdraw our consent to a government which does not listen, and secondly withhold power from the government. There are ways to do this. Their power is absolutely dependent on our willingness to follow. Never, never forget that.

Do not let them have your children, to implant in their young, impressionable minds distorted, corrupt, decadent values. The State does not intend to educate your children to become strong, independent thinkers. They will not educate them, but they will teach them - how to be little drones, never questioning anything. They are doing it now, today. Find another way to teach your children - almost any alternative is preferable. So you don't do it perfectly. So what? Life is an excellent teacher. Guide them. That is what they really need, want from you, anyway. Trust that it will work out.

If we do not give them such easy access to our children, they will lose. They must have access to the children - to inculcate a mindless obedience. Remember that.

......................................................................................

This is a book review by Nathanael Blake, a columnist at Human Events.com. The author of the book, Ralph de Toledano, was an old warrior for American freedom, whose contribution to American liberty as a whistle-blower, news analyst, author, and first and foremost, a newspaperman is immeasurable.

Cry Havoc!
by Nathanael Blake — 05-15-2007

Recently a court in Pennsylvania ruled that two young children have three legal parents: their birth mother, her former partner in a lesbian civil union, and the man who donated sperm to his lesbian friend. The donor was active in the children’s lives, and when the lesbian couple broke up, a nasty custody and child-support battle ensued, with the result that all three adults involved have been declared legal parents. This is part of a trend; City Journal has a long and fascinating article on related phenomena here.

Families provide a support structure for individuals. When families become impermanent and indefinable, the support structure vanishes, and the individual turns elsewhere. Formerly such unfortunates (the widows and orphans of scripture) would turn to church and community, but when family and social breakdown is widespread, individuals look to the government for help, since the layers of society between the citizen and the state have been removed. Autonomous individuality removes the extra-legal bonds between people, leaving nothing between the cold power of the state and the naked citizen; no gentle drapery of custom, no robe of tradition, no clothing of family and community. If the family is amorphous and evanescent then civil society will collapse, leaving only law as our relations to others are contractual, not customary.

Reducing family to a state-sponsored contract between individuals is to reverse the proper order of human being. The state exists for families, not the other way around. The family is not a creation of the state, but a precondition of it. And while it might sound a nice sentiment to say (as so many do) that a family can be made of anything, the necessary implication is that family means nothing. A term with infinite mutability is meaningless.

In America, the hour is late—the forces seeking to destroy the family have conquered much. The schools have led the way in this, promulgating doctrines designed to destroy our society, militating against belief in the transcendent and the customs and taboos that are necessary to keep a society from barbarism. Multiculturalism, the official creed of the educational system, seeks to destroy the loyalties and bonds of culture and country. Educators believe it is their raison d’etre to challenge and criticize Western culture, not transmit it to their pupils.

How, conservatives wonder, did it come down to this? In his final book, Cry Havoc!: The Great American Bring-Down and How it Happened, Ralph de Toledano, the late great conservative journalist and polemicist, provides part of the answer: it was a communist plot.

This answer may seem a relic left over from the fringes of the Cold War, something from a John Birch Society pamphlet. If so, it’s got some odd supporters. William F. Buckley, Jr., who helmed National Review when it wrote the Birchers out of the conservative movement, gave the book an enthusiastic blurb.

Cry Havoc! doesn’t peddle crackpot theories about Ike being a closet commie. Rather, de Toledano explains how the Communist International founded and guided the Frankfurt School, and how the neo-Marxism/neo-Freudianism it preached came to dominate the American academy and elites, and hence much of American culture.

The attitudes and ideas the Frankfurt school and its pupils and allies spread among the intellectuals have seeped deep in American culture. A man who cheats on his wife, divorces her and neglects his children is not a conscious student of neo-Freudianism or neo-Marxism, but those ideologies have enabled his actions. Anti-family ideas among the cognoscenti are simplified and broadcast by the schools and media, producing an anti-family culture.

The neo-Marxists didn’t look to the economic theories of Marx, but to his earlier, more destructive impulses. They didn’t want to abolish capital, they wanted to abolish society. In this book de Toledano provides the history of the aims, origins, rise and dominance of these intellectual barbarians.

Years before he had inflicted the unscientific maunderings of Das Kapital and the dogmas of dialectical materialism on a long-suffering world, Marx called for what had to be accomplished—the ‘ruthless destruction of everything existing.’ That destruction would wipe out religion, the family, morality, the free interplay of men and economic forces, human relationships, and everything that made Western civilization…

So in 1922, the conspiracy was hatched at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow by Karl Radek, a power in the Politburo and the representative of Lenin, Felix Djerzhinski, head of the Soviet secret police, Georg Lukas, cultural commissar of the short-lived Hungarian Bolshevik revolution, and Willi Muenzenberg, the Comintern’s organizational genius. The seemingly modest instrument was the Institute of Social Research, planted in the prestigious Frankfurt University, and dedicated to neo-Marxism… ‘We will take over the intellectuals,’ Willi Muenzenberg boasted. ‘We will make America stink.’

To a great extent, the conspiracy succeeded, and de Toledano recounts in brutal detail how the cluster of intellectuals around the Institute of Social Research became the powerful group known as the Frankfurt School. It began in Germany, where the Institute, led by Theodore Adorno had a connection to almost every debasement of art and culture, but it did not end there. Its outreaches into Britain compromised the intelligence services of that country, but the greatest harm came when the Frankfurt School decamped to America, courtesy of John Dewey and Columbia University.

From Columbia, it methodically began to blast the minds of America’s educators, and through them America’s future. “John Dewey’s sponsorship gave the Institute a lock on Teacher’s College—the foremost educational institution in the U.S. The influence of Teacher’s College, in fact, reached out across the country, as its graduates filled more that 60 percent of all teaching and educational and administrative posts in the country.”

That is power, and de Toledano chronicles how the likes of Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Wilhelm Reich, Kurt Lewin, and Max Horkheimer used it to pervert America. The author overreaches at times—Dewey would have been a poisonous influence even if he had never heard of the Frankfurt School—by stretching to involve the Frankfurt School in almost every nefarious intellectual project. There was no shortage of intellectual decay and subversion in the 20th century, far more than any one group could be responsible for. Still, the Frankfurt School was a major player in the corruption of the intellectuals, and de Toledano has provided a valuable account of how this came about.

The writing is largely superb, with only a few slips. The opening is too much of a standard conservative culture-warrior screed, and there is an embarrassing goof midway through the book where he uses the same unflattering phrase to describe both Karl Mark and Kurt Lewin in their dealings with women. Though accurate in both cases, that’s the sort of error editors should catch. But a few hiccups aside, this was a superb, extremely informative read.

............................................................

Remember:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

Trackposted toThe Bullwinkle Blog, Wake Up America, DeMediacratic Nation, and Right Truth Right Pundits, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, third world county, Faultline USA, Big Dog's WeblogBlog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, Committees of Correspondence, High Desert Wanderer, DragonLady's World, and Shadowscope, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Who Controls Our Children?

The video (vcr) quality of this film is poor, but the audio is excellent. I listened to it as I made lunch.


While I was looking for a film project by John Taylor Gatto and The Odysseus Group, called "The Fourth Purpose" - I discovered the film on Google Video, which begins a thread Mr. Gatto has been pursuing. Both projects are of the same time frame, early 1990's. I have been unable to find Mr. Gatto's film - don't know if the film has been completed or not.

The story of this film began almost twenty years ago, when a Pennsylvania boy came home from public school one day, and said: "Mom, something weird is going on with this test they made us take in school today". Being a concerned mom, she went to the school and asked to see the test. The school refused, saying it was against public policy, that the test and it's results were between the school and the students. She persisted, and again was told she couldn't see the test or know its contents. Now she was pissed, and went into action at the state level, and finally obtained a copy of the test given by the EQA Program, the Educational Quality and Accountability Program. Her individual initiative and actions as a concerned parent started the investigation, which resulted in this film from 1992 by Peg Luksik and the PA Parents Commission; it has further peeled back the federal agenda of "collectivism" endemic throughout our national school system.

In almost all the states that have implemented school accountability to date, the overriding concern is the achievement of students. In contrast to policies of earlier periods, the chief focus of accountability is results, not effort. Most of the enabling legislation explicitly states that the purpose of adopting school accountability systems is to reflect student achievement outcomes and school performance.

"While parents, schools, provinces and states across North America bicker about the democratic process of running public schools, forces are all manipulating education from behind the scenes. Major international players are reshaping public education to suit their own self-serving agendas, without regard for the wants of parents and the welfare of their children. This video lecture documents how today's educational system dumb down kids deliberately, making zombie-like people who don't ask any questions but just follow orders."

If I were a really disciplined researcher, I would wait until I knew the more recent chronology of this tale of "Public Education Dumbing Down Kids Deliberately". But as I don't have the resources to research this properly, I will pass along to you what I find, as I find it. Stay tuned.

If your child started public school in 1992, the kid is likely a sophomore or junior in college now. You might want to take the time to watch this one-hour film, just to see what they have been exposed to. They have been taught by "outcome-based education guidelines", which are measured by "exit outcomes". The purpose of this is to make all the children the same - it's stated method and goal is to eliminate individual differences. And here's the kicker: the goals were written, not by the US Dept of Education, but by the US Labor Dept. Oh, and parents are not privy to this information. If local schools do not meet the criteria, the state will take over. It explains a lot.

As I was writing this, I hopped over to the Massachusetts Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA), where I was invited to peruse their site for information on 2006-2007 standards, accountability, etc. Don't even bother. It is a bunch of gobbledy-gook, blah, blah, saying nothing about the actual contents of the test. Obfuscation. So, nothing changes. Didn't think it would have. Gotta check, though.

When the PA Parents Commission got involved and began looking into the EQA, they were aghast. They asked the question, "How come all the goals in all the states are the same?" - since the goals are supposedly being generated at the state level. They looked at the New American Schools Development Corporation (1991), which has morphed a few times, and is currently known as the REL Midwest. All were funded by federal grant money. Again, don't look for answers here, either. The website's job is to float high-sounding crap, which will only leave you frustrated.

They didn't get any answers. No, what they got were lies, denials - even though the state of Pennsylvania left a paper trail a mile wide. See, they have to document this stuff. Then turn around and deny it is being used. It is being used. And Ms. Luksik has the proof. Here's further proof.

On the NCLB Implementation Center, they did make one recommendation:

In testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Education Reform this week, Learning Point Associates Senior Advisor Paul Kimmelman cautioned against making sweeping changes to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. "Rather than make major changes to the law, be patient and make small changes based on logical, evidence-based recommendations," Dr. Kimmelman told the panel led by U.S. Representative Judy Biggert.

Yeah, don't make any sweeping changes.

I'd like to propose one sweeping change:












Ok, I'm getting giddy.
Time to stop.

Check out the film. Check out Mr.Gatto. Check out your kids from public school, and don't send them back.

Homeschool them.

Teach them what you know - Educate them anyway you see fit.



Under your watchful eye - let 'em loose in the museums - run in the field of dreams -
let 'em fish - play - hunt - write - make movies - create -volunteer - help others, - make art - make friends - make war - make up - sew - cook - loaf around - cry - play - build - make music - solve problems -invent themselves over and over.


Believe in them, and they will astound you.

But for heaven's sake, keep them out of the clutches of institutional schooling, where they are regarded as "human resource material", or "human capital"
- never as individuals.

It's Collectivism, pure and simple.


Trackback:
Freedom Folks
Maggie's Notebook

Betrayal of Our Children

The world is a dangerous and treacherous place for children. Assuming you are one of the"lucky ones", and not among the millions of babies who don't get a pass through the birth canal, but are instead, poisoned or yanked half-way out of the womb, only to have their brains sucked out by a vacuum cleaner, and discarded, perhaps saving the good bits to sell at fair market price - but assuming you are one of the lucky ones who have a chance, slim though it may be, to get to use the body God has given you, things can still go horribly wrong.

Children die in the millions every year from disease and poverty - indifference and neglect. Others never get the nurturing necessary to survive in an unforgiving world. And if you're born female, the odds go down even further. Untold thousands of little girls are often forced into slavery, or prostitution, often even before menarche. Boys are sometimes forced to go to war which they in no way understand - still they are forced to carry an AK-47, and are expected to use it. And they come away bearing the scars of battle. The Islamists teach their children to hate, which leaves another kind of scar.

But don't blame God for this injustice. God suffers in agony at each blow, each hurtful word, each indignity and pain these little ones are forced to endure. It is Man who has chosen to turn his back on the helpless. It is Man who has lost his compassion, and it is Man who will be called into full account for his shameful treatment of God's children.

Not all wars show the scars of battles. Some wars are fought using children as pawns of expediency, such as the current war by the Hegelian/Gramscian/Leftist political ideologues, who are putting John Dewey's ideas of relative moral-ism into the classroom and curricula of our children's schools. Dewey's ideas on Pragmatism have evolved over the past 50 years into a new religion, called the Church of Secular Humanism. This war is now being waged in the classrooms all across America. It is a war in which the children are the ultimate losers, because the goal is to render them incapable of rational, reasoned thought.

Why do this? The reason is simple. The Leftists are replacing "old" patriotic ideas with "new" ideas receptive to a world government. And they are doing it in the classroom. They have come to believe that this will bring about world peace. I'm not making this up. This war is being waged with the full participation of our government, through the administrative agencies and in cooperation with the National Education Association. The Bilderbergers are chortling with glee at the way Americans are simply lying down and taking this. It has been a carefully orchestrated betrayal of America.

I believe if more American parents understood the ramifications and travesty of post-modern "progressivism" in education, there would be blood flowing in the streets. For those of us who haven't been brainwashed by the Hegelian/Gramscian/NEA Leftists (a redundancy I can live with), we had better take this matter to heart. It is, the old cliché goes, serious as cancer. Your children's future and America's future as well, hangs in the balance.

It is no longer sufficient to just home school your own children. If you can home school, that's wonderful. But for the majority of parents, that's not feasible or even advisable. It is the majority of parents and children who are prey to the secular humanists goal: to render the young incapable of reasoned thought. And they have no idea of the stakes of this war.

It is right and the duty of the ones who do know, to tell the others.

Usually when I begin an article such as this, I check in with Sissy Willis, and I found her May 17, 2007 post, "You are no longer obliged to tell the truth if you don’t feel like it"

and Dr. Sanity's The Evolution of Education Into Indoctrination

both articulate and passionate writers, and American Patriots as well. They didn't disappoint. Go check out Sissy, then go get your history lesson over at Dr. Sanity's (scroll down to middle of page - Thurs May 17).

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

I came across this 20 min. video last night. Very entertaining and instructive.

Sir Ken Robinson on Children (who grow up) and Creativity:

How to fire a teacher in NYC - An Algorithm for Sustainable Incompetence

John Stossel brought this up in his 20/20 "Stupid in America - How We Cheat Our Kids " Google Video, so, being somewhat nosey anyway, I poked around and found the chart...All I can say is, WOW.

Having lived in NYC for 33 years, I remember the many power plays that went on in City Hall. NYC politics is not a pretty sight. The mayors tend to be egotistically-driven Megalomaniacs. School Chancellors come and go, the schools stay the same: rotten, drug-filled havens for the grossly incompetent administrators, who were once teachers, but have now passed the ahem, rigors of administrative office duty.

Chancellors Joseph Fernandez, Cortinez, Harold Levy, Rudy Crew (the worst), a long line of incompetents in their own right - well, some were incompetent, and some simply wouldn't kiss the Pope's ring. And currently Joel Klein, with Bloomberg's blessings - his choice, actually.

So, if New York City has billions to spend, a technocrat Mayor dedicated to improving the schools, and a savvy Schools Chancellor, why aren't things improving? An entrenched bureaucracy, and a seemingly unbreakable Teachers Union, yes, but the real reason schools are so bad there? Nobody is accountable. Klein's hands, like the Mayor's, are tied. How bad is it?

Take a gander at this Algorithm for Incompetence.

83 Steps to Fire a N.Y. Teacher

Oh, and a teacher must take 66 "bureaucratic steps" over 105 days to suspend a disruptive student the Post notes, citing Common Good's new Over Ruled study.

NYC has a budget of billions and billions of dollars. Throw more money at it and the system simple absorbs it, like a giant amoeba. The principal of a school has virtually no control over what goes on in his school. The kids are out of control. And this has been going on for a long, long time.

Just one illustration from personal experience: Back in the mid-70's I had contracted for the use of a lecture room in a public school. Without going into detail, I was responsible for securing space and staffing an evening speaker event, not school related. I had used this particular school before, when I couldn't get the Red Cross facilities. On the night in question, there was one speaker, and 150 guests. About 5 minutes before the speaker was to arrive, a thunderous noise broke out overhead, in the room above the guests. Alarmed, I went to check it out, and discovered a high school basketball game had just started. I went to find the principal, explained the situation to him, expecting him to resolve it. What he said was, "I can't do anything about it." What do you mean, you can't do anything about it? It's your school isn't it? He gave a wistful smile at my ignorance, and said, "The head school custodian made the arrangements. I have no control over it." Come on, it's your school. "Nope, sorry, it's in our contract. I can't interfere." The custodian is in charge? "Sorry, I'd like to help, but my hands are tied."

So, with a little finesse, the speaker learned to work quickly - between fast breaks on the court. Sheesh, the principal has no say in what goes on in his school?

Another time, even earlier (this was early 70's) - I was scheduled to speak to some high school kids in a Queens high school. As soon as I arrived, one of the staff there pulled me aside and said, "Whatever you do, don't go into any of the men's rooms, you'll be mugged." Hmmm.

In the interim, the monopolistic NYC Teachers' Union has become even stronger.

So what's the answer? Ha. Many have tried to answer that and have been broken on the wheel of bureaucracy. Mayor Bloomberg just went up against the Teacher's Union, and lost. So it ain't gonna be easy.

But accountability would go a long way toward sorting out their myriad troubles. School vouchers would tie the money to the child . Let the parents choose functioning, accountable schools. I can hear the shrieks and groaning of the nincompoops, as their schools are - simply allowed to die of attrition. Hey, it's worth a shot.

For another look at the NY Board of Leftism Ed's Mad rassa Madness, Woman Honor Thyself has more info.

The Hole in The Wall

Several years ago, I remember reading about Dr. Sugata Mitra, and this idea he had about computers and poor children in India. Basically, he set up a kiosk in one of the many poor villages in India. The kiosk had a computer with a high-speed internet connection. The computer was set up so that the children could see the screen inside, behind a window, and there were controls, levers of a sort. That's it. He said nothing to the children, they had never seen a computer, knew nothing of the internet. And, as was his hunch, within the afternoon the children were surfing, playing music, watching videos. A tech man inside recorded and told Dr. Mitra what he had observed.

Here's the story in Dr. Mitra's own words...You can click on: The Idea, The Inspiration, and The Afternmath, for a short Windows Media Player clip. Or you can go to his website and view in Quick Time Movie or Real Player format.

The Idea


A revolution in information technology is redefining poverty, as how much you know is becoming just as important as how much you own. "The Hole in the Wall" examines one possible solution to the growing technological gap between rich and poor -- the so-called 'digital divide' -- that threatens to consign millions to an "information underclass."

The Inspiration

When Indian researcher Sugata Mitra embedded a high-speed computer in a wall separating his firm's New Delhi headquarters from an adjacent slum, he discovered that slum children quickly taught themselves how to surf the net, read the news, and download games and music. Mitra then replicated the experiment in other locations. Each time the results were similar: within hours, and without instruction, the children began browsing the Internet.


Can children -- given only access and opportunity -- really teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy with no instruction? "The Hole in the Wall" experiment, and the documentary film that chronicles it, show the answer to be a "Yes!" Mitra estimates that, given access to one hundred thousand computers, one hundred million Indian children could teach themselves computer literacy within five years.

The Aftermath


The film concludes by noting that the spread of information technology is changing societies around the world, and the implications of Mitra's experiment are profound -- particularly for poor people.
Running Time: 58:30.

That's all I know about this remarkable story. It sure opens the doors to a lot of possibilities and potential in young children. You can buy the film here. I'm not recommending that anyone buy the film, that's up to you. I just wanted to share this remarkable story with you. Children have such incredible spirit. We should help them to let it soar.

Homeschooling and Socialization Skills

When I was growing up, homeschooling was not an option in my town. I went to public schools in the South, and though they had their drawbacks, the situation was vastly different back then (40's & 50's). For one thing, we went to segregated schools, Jesus was not a problem, and by 1954, Elvis was King. The teacher's colleges were not pumping out dehumanized, secular humanist teachers. The curricula was focused on the basics of science, math, English courses. Geography was about geology, in American history we learned about, well, American history. In our schools we were encouraged to strive for excellence, in sports as well as academics. Socialization was accomplished in our contact with our peers, sports, after-school and summer jobs, church, our families - in most instances, extended families, and dating. We celebrated 'sameness', rather than 'diversity'. I think we were fiercely individualistic sovereigns, but within the structure of a social contract. Though, being kids, we would have laughed at the notion.

The high school's curricula was presented in two streams: classical, which focused on languages, Latin classics, and American literature, and the other stream was concentrated science studies. We were allowed to choose between the two, just as long as we passed the core subjects. All in all, it was a pretty good school system. But see, that's just the thing: it wasn't "just a school system". The town, the churches, and the schools had a core understanding of what it meant to be an American and what it meant to be good, as well as bad. Our belief system was rooted in the Constitution and American history, which was further rooted in democratic ideals upon which our society rested. The spirit of the Declaration of Independence was celebrated, revered even. There was discipline and authority, and vandalism was very rare. Oh yeah, there was school-yard justice, too. You learned what was tolerable behavior, and what wasn't. In school, if we messed-up, we were punished. But we drew our sustenance from all the above mentioned. There was a fairness about life.

I personally was a very rebellious kid, often clashing with the authorities and my teachers, mostly about homework, which I detested. One of my teachers, a 'coach' who also taught something, I forget what, cheerfully told me I would never amount to anything, and was always on my case. Soon after opportunity presented itself, I lied about my age, joined the National Guard, signed up for three months active duty, went to Ft Jackson, SC, took Infantry Basic Training (and had my first contact with Blacks - my platoon sergeant was black, fought in WW11- and an awesome man), and came back at the end of summer just in time to start the eleventh grade. After that, the coach left me alone. Actually, I would recommend infantry basic training for any sixteen year old boy, especially if he's being picked on. It does give you an edge.

I might also mention, in passing, that there were no "gays" in our school, though there was a gay man in town, known simply as "Goose". We stayed away from him. Neither was there Ritalin, Prozac, or any other psychotropic or anti-depressant drugs. And no street drugs, other than alcohol, but I lived in a "dry" county, so alcohol was hard, though not impossible, to come by. Being normal kids, we sometimes managed to find alcohol. No pot though,- no hash, Angel Dust, LSD, ecstasy, coke, smack, crack, crank, no nothing. We were so fortunate.

I had occasion a few years ago, to substitute teach in a public school where I now live in Northern New Jersey. I showed up on the day a teacher went in for surgery, so I was asked to stay with the class (fourth grade) the remainder of the year, which I did. It was a very confusing scene I encountered. Almost total chaos: kids out of control, security guards to haul out the most persistent trouble-makers; my kids were afraid to go outside at lunch time, and asked me to sit with them in the cafeteria during lunch. Lunch, if you could call it that, was delivered by an outside vendor, and consisted of disgusting dry hamburgers, an apple, juice. I wouldn't have fed a dog what they were expected to eat. After awhile, they loosened-up and talked to me. They mostly just wanted to talk to an understanding adult who was willing to listen. Mostly, they need someone who will simply listen to them . Some of them shyly hinted at what it was like at home. Others airily gave up details which belied their fears.

Some of these children were from third-generation welfare families. Who knows how they will fare? Father in the wind, mother in jail, many of these kids are raised in foster homes or by their grandmothers, who are themselves sometimes addicted to drugs. Socialization? Some of these little guys are animals, even at the tender age of eleven and twelve. What's worse, many of the educators are unwilling to acknowledge anything wrong. The administration is too busy worrying about numbers to feed into the federal programs, lest they get into hot water, and lose their funding. I would not want my child to enter into such a school system, and in fact when my daughter was growing up, she went to private schools in NYC. Never-the-less, in the universities she became indoctrinated with the Leftist agenda of "never being right about anything", except to say that anyone who believes they are right about something, is wrong. Go figure.

How ironic that the "never be judgmental" mentality of the Left has become the most intolerant of any view in opposition to moral relativism. Gone is any notion of a social contract. Life is just an open-air fruit stand. Take what you like. Gone any shared views of good or bad or a vision of an ordered societal good. "In God we trust" has become not only obsolete, but a threat to the morass passing for moral justice these days.

So, you've got kids in preschool, wondering about their education. What to do? Pack them off to the public school system? - where the real focus is not on teaching subjects anymore, but rather, how to be a member of a New World Order, which happens to be a major goal of the NEA. Their goal is to inculcate an identity, not as a patriotic citizen of America, but to a global identity in which all values are relative, and encouraged to blossom into a rainbow of moral degeneracy. That means certain terms, like 'Mom' or 'Dad', or even 'family' must be deleted from their minds. For that to happen, the textbooks must be revised, with all such words elided. And the universities, the publishers, the reviewers of books, the NEA, the school boards, and the teachers are all on board with this agenda being pushed by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford, and Carnegie Foundations, and the various think-tanks who sit around, cooking up ways to take America down. Think they can't do it? Friends, they are doing it. Maybe you should look at the homeschooling option. There are many places to go for advice on how to succeed at homeschooling your kids. Why not look into it?

And yet today, when the word "homeschooling" comes up, the concern that many adults have is "But will they be socialized?" Ahem. Socialized into what? Today it is simply assumed that the public schools are the best place for children to receive socialization skills and good social temperment. Why not the family? There are factors necessary for a good home school environment. Here is where I turn to the experts: the homeschool parents...

- From the LouRockwell.com Home Page -

Homeschooling and the Myth of Socialization

by Manfred B. Zysk
December 16, 1999

One of the silliest and most annoying comments made to homeschooling parents is, "Aren't you concerned about how your child will be able to socialize with others?". What is being implied here is that the homeschooled child is some kind of introverted misfit who cannot relate to other people, children, and the outside world. In reality, most of the homeschooled children that I have known and met are not only outgoing, but polite and respectful, too. This is a sharp contrast to the public school children that I have known, who can't relate to adults and whose behavior is rude and inconsiderate. Realistically, there are some exceptions on both sides.

Isn't it interesting that amid all of the public school shootings over the past few years, the only comment that opponents of homeschooling can come up with is the red herring of "socialization"? You may have noticed, there haven't been shootings at private schools, or shootings inside of the homes of homeschooled children.

Opponents of homeschooling can't complain about average test scores, since homeschooled children consistently outscore public school children, so they instead make a problem that doesn't exist.

Who is responsible for creating this "socialization" problem? This myth has been perpetrated by sociologists, psychologists, public school administrators, the NEA (and local teacher's unions), etc., whenever they comment on homeschooling to the news media. These are the same people who give Ritalin (a very strong narcotic) and other drugs to schoolchildren, in place of discipline.

A family member asked my wife, "Aren't you concerned about his (our son's) socialization with other kids?". My wife gave this response: "Go to your local middle school, junior high, or high school, walk down the hallways, and tell me which behavior you see that you think our son should emulate." Good answer.

In order for children to become assimilated into society properly, it is important to have a variety of experiences and be exposed to differing opinions and views. This enables them to think for themselves and form their own opinions. This is exactly what public education does not want; public education is for the lowest common denominator and influencing all of the students to share the same views ("group-think") and thought-control through various means, including peer-pressure.

Homeschooling allows parents the freedom to associate with other interested parties, visit local businesses, museums, libraries, etc. as part of school, and to interact with people of all ages in the community. For example, my son goes on field trips with other homeschooling families in our community. He recently was able to visit an audiologist, a McDonald's restaurant (to see how they run their operation), and several other similar activities. He gets to meet and talk to people of different ages doing interesting (and sometimes not so interesting) occupations. He spends a lot of his free time with kids older and younger than himself, and adults from twenty to over ninety years old.

Meanwhile, in public school, children are segregated by age, and have very little interaction with other adults, except their teacher(s). This environment only promotes alienation from different age groups, especially adults. This is beginning to look like the real socialization problem.

My wife and I like to bring our son with us when we are visiting with friends and other adults. How else will he learn to be an adult, if he never has contact with adults? He knows what kind of behavior we expect from him, and the consequences of his actions. He is often complimented on his good manners by friends and adults.

In conclusion, homeschooling parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons, but I have never heard any homeschooling parent say that the reason they want to homeschool is to isolate their child from all of society. But, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for homeschooled children to stay away from public school administrators, the NEA members, sociologists, and others who cannot properly "socialize" with children.

Go to your local public school, walk down the hallways and see what behaviors you would want your child to emulate.

Manfred B. Zysk has been homeschooling for five years, with the help and dedication of his wife, Margaret Zysk. They work with other homeschoolers in Idaho.
------------------------------------------

Family Times has this to say:

March/April 2002
Volume 10, No. 1

No Thank You, We Don’t Believe in Socialization!
by Lisa Russell

I can’t believe I am writing an article about socialization, The word makes my skin crawl. As homeschoolers, we are often accosted by people who assume that since we’re homeschooling, our kids won’t be “socialized.” The word has become such a catch phrase that it has entirely lost any meaning.

The first time I heard the word, I was attending a Catholic day school as a first grader.

Having been a 'reader' for almost 2 years, I found the phonics and reading lessons to be incredibly boring. Luckily the girl behind me felt the same way, and when we were done with our silly little worksheets, we would chat back and forth. I’ve never known two 6 yr. olds who could maintain a quiet conversation, so naturally a ruler-carrying nun interrupted us with a few strong raps on our desk. We were both asked to stay in at recess, and sit quietly in our desks for the entire 25 minutes, because "We are not here to socialize, young ladies."

Those words were repeated over and over throughout my education, by just about every teacher I’ve ever had. If we’re not there to socialize, then why were we there? I learned to read at home. If I finished my work early (which I always did), could I have gone home? If I were already familiar with the subject matter, would I have been excused from class that day? If schools weren’t made for socializing, then why on earth would anyone assume that homeschoolers were missing out?

As a society full of people whose childhood’s were spent waiting anxiously for recess time, and trying desperately to "socialize" with the kids in class; It is often difficult for people to have an image of a child whose social life is NOT based on school buddies. Do you ever remember sitting in class, and wanting desperately to speak to your friend? It’s kind of hard to concentrate on the lessons when you’re bouncing around trying not to talk. Have you ever had a teacher who rearranged the seats every now and then, to prevent talking, splitting up friends and 'talking corners.' Were you ever caught passing notes in class?

Read the rest.

Drugging Our School Children

Study: Antidepressants May Help Kids

By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

April 17, 2007
CHICAGO

Recently released findings of the psycho-pharmaceutical industry concludes that the prescribing of psychotropic drugs for children is a good thing. Let's take a look.

All this gets confusing, but as the man said, "the devil is in the details", and the details are pretty horrific.

This is the latest study of the "lab rat" variety. I am somewhat familiar with the way studies such as this are designed, and I can tell you without even seeing their data, that these "findings" and their conclusions were cherry-picked to support the use of drugs on children for the express purpose of controlling their behavior. The psychological community has been promoting such drug use for thirty-five years. All they have to do to get it classified in the The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is to add the word, "disorder" at the end, and voilá, we have another "mental illness" for which lots of expensive drugs can be prescribed.

The AP article names the National Institute of Mental Health , NIMH and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the ones who provided funding. Several questions come to mind right away. The first question is: which companies conducted this, "most comprehensive analysis of the data yet put together" of antidepressants for children and teenagers? followed by the next question: What was the relationship of the doctors conducting the research to the companies conducting the study? Who is really behind studies such as these?

On the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics website, this study on ADHD is mentioned. I am including it in full because it is instructive as to how far the language goes to dehumanizing the children: remember methylphenidate is RITALIN, manufactured by Ciba Geigy Corporation.

Stereoselective disposition of methylphenidate in children with attention-deficit disorder

NR Srinivas, D Quinn, JW Hubbard and KK Midha

Six boys with attention-deficit disorder were given single doses (5 or 10 mg) of dl-threo-methylphenidate (Ritalin, Ciba-Geigy, Basel, Switzerland). Plasma samples through 8 hr were analyzed by capillary column gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Enantiomers were separated and measured as heptafluorobutyryl-1-prolyl derivatives. The method was sensitive to 0.1 ng of enantiomer per ml of plasma. The plasma levels of d-methylphenidate were at least 5-fold greater than those of the l-enantiomer in the profiles of all six children. Mean areas under the plasma level-time curves were 24.48 +/- 7.62 ng/hr/ml for d-methylphenidate and 3.77 +/- 1.04 ng/hr/ml for l-methylphenidate. There was appreciable intersubject variation in plasma level maxima and times to maximal plasma levels of each enantiomer.

Volume 241, Issue 1, pp. 300-306, 04/01/1987
Copyright © 1987 by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

But Liberty Coalition reports that:

"The Federal Mental Health Action Agenda (FMHAA) is the implementation plan for the New Freedom Commission report, and it has many recommendations and plans. For instance the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that is overseeing this agenda is funding grants to develop and expand "mental health promotion and early intervention services for infants in mental health care settings and other programs that serve children and adolescents . . ." Apparently government involvement in the mental health of preschoolers as described in the NFC report was not early enough the Federal Action Agenda had to lower the age to infancy."

Secondly, this is junk science. It's very irresponsible of the AP to even report it in this fashion. The criterion for determining whether or not the drugs were harmful was:

"There were no suicides in any of the studies. The antidepressants included Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron."

Let me tell you something: when the medical community concludes that a drug is safe for use by our children, simply because they didn't commit suicide while on it, we are in deep doo doo.

The study concluded:

"The medications are safe and effective and should be considered as an important part of treatment," said study co-author Dr. David Brent of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The benefits seem favorable compared to the small risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior."

What benefits one might be tempted to ask? Benefiting whom? A statement like this is undoubtedly directly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, who stand to profit in the billions of dollars for even one successfully introduced psychotropic drug.

and,

"Antidepressants worked best when used to treat anxiety, the analysis found. They worked moderately well treating obsessive-compulsive disorders. They worked less well, but were still effective in treating depression."

and,

"Effectiveness of the drugs was measured in the studies using widely accepted rating scales. The analysis appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association."

Widely accepted by whom? The doctors who are prescribing the drugs?

The widely accepted policy of subjecting our school children to "mental health testing" - often without approval or even knowledge of the parents - and subsequent drugging, must stop.

My question is: do schools who allow the promotion of prescribing drugs to our young children and adolescents for "behavioral problems" qualify as "Drug-Free Schools"? I would have to say, no they don't. And we wonder where they get the idea that drugs are good? Take a pill.

Not included in this study is the common practice of prescribing Ritalin for the treatment of ADHD, or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which is not a disease. An estimated 5,000,000 children in the US alone take as methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin.
Ritalin is classified as an amphetamine.

Where was Ritalin when I was a school kid? It didn't exist. Our "behavioral" problems were handled by our teacher, our principal, and our parents. Did we have peer pressure to conform and misbehave? Ah, yes we did. Awareness of the consequences of our actions was about the only guiding principle we went by. It was very effective, but we still had a great time in school.

In Cloning of the American Mind, Beverly K. Eakman states, unequivocally:

"School violence is the result of peer groups usurping the authority of the parent. The authority of the parent is gone. The authority of the adult is gone. The adult is no longer guiding or leading the child. Therefore the peer group is doing it. This is the result of psychology, this is what psychology promotes, actively - and has promoted for 35 years, and it has culminated in epidemic school violence."

How did this usurping of parental authority come about? Here is a clue...

Published in the Education Reporter, November 2006.
By Karen R. Effrem, M.D.

Government Shrinks in the Nursery
Infant and Toddler Mental Health

"In fact, a 2005 study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley said, "Attendance in preschool centers, even for short periods of time each week, hinders the rate at which young children develop social skills and display the motivation to engage classroom tasks, as reported by their kindergarten teachers." So, in fact, preschool does not improve children's social interaction and development; they harm them. The proposed government solution is creating the very crisis it purports to solve."

"Sadly, the other major and even more dangerous way for intervening in the mental health of young children is using powerful psychiatric drugs as a chemical straitjacket. A 2000 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed a 300% increase in the use of these drugs in 2-to-4-year-old children between 1991 and 1995. And key child psychiatric opinion leader Dr. David Willis said, "Psychopharmacology is on the horizon as preventive therapy for children with genetic susceptibility to mental health problems." (Emphasis added)"

"Yet, the science behind the diagnostic criteria, the screening instruments, and the treatments, whether drug or educational and social interventions, is appallingly bad. Dr. Benedetto Vitiello, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at the National Institutes of Health acknowledged the "diagnostic uncertainty surrounding most manifestations of psychopathology in young children." The technical information for one of the most commonly used screening instruments for young children admits that it is wrong 73% of the time. There are no studies showing long-term safety and effectiveness or effect on the developing brains and bodies of any psychiatric drug in children."

"Yet, two of the three classes of these drugs are under the FDA's most stringent warnings short of bans, called Black Box Warnings, for suicide, violence, and increased death rates. They also interfere with learning, causing violence, neurological problems, obesity, diabetes, and heart attacks. The vast majority are not FDA approved for use in children, but children are put on them by the millions, most often as members of a captive clientele, such as the welfare, foster care or juvenile justice systems. They are often medicated in unstudied, unapproved combinations. Dr. Vitiello also said, "Little research has been conducted to study the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in young children, and the long-term risk-benefit ratio of psychosocial and pharmacologic treatments is basically unknown.""

"What can be done to stop this horrific, unscientific, ineffective, and dangerous government invasion into the minds and values of our most vulnerable citizens?"

"We must refuse to submit our children to any of these unscientific screenings and surveys, no matter where or by whom they are proposed. We must demand that the federal government quit funding the programs that carry out this invasion of parental authority and family autonomy. We must demand better information regarding the dangers and side effects of these drugs. Instead of drugging, we must demand the promotion of strong two-parent families and tax policies that do not force mothers into the workforce."

"Most importantly, we must view our children, and insist that government mental health industry also view them, as unique individuals "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," not sick people with broken brains that may only be fixed by a toxic drug or government program. (See www.edwatch.org for more information and specifics on how to fight this system in your own state)"

All the more reason to Home School.

Do Society's Rights Trump Our Individual Rights?

Henry David Thoreau, one of America's true sons of individuality, didn't think so:

NAU NO WAY








"When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?"

Do you value your freedom? Of course you do. No matter how much we disparage those outside our immediate value system, we still want the freedom to be and become who we are.... all under the good influences guiding our choices in life. And we want the same thing for our children, even if we don't have children of our own. And most of us want this freedom even for people with whom we disagree on most everything. I think that is because we do put a lot of stock in the higher influences guiding our lives. We may call it by different names, God, Spirit of the Universe, or even good music, books, good conversation. We rely on these influences, and we have faith (most of the time) in our choices. But most of all, we want the freedom to make good choices and bad choices. We want our children to grow up to be able to do the same.

But what if the ones in power in the world today don't want that for us? What if they have already decided they know what is good for the world, and are busily putting their plans into action, real action, backed by real money and power, and in fact are telling us (finally) what their vision of America is?

Let's say you come to the conclusion, based on what you read and see around you, that the SPP, the NAU, for example, are fascist (corporatism) based plans to relieve you of your freedom, in exchange for bondage for you, and liberty for the few in power. What do you do?

In my case, I became concerned about the unrelenting illegal immigration problem. They were destroying the desert where I wanted to retire. I began looking into it, and 8 months later, based on my research, I am stunned by what I have uncovered. Of course, there is always the chance that I am soft-brained and am imagining this. But I don't think so. There is simply too much evidence that our government has become usurped, through a long process of deceit, lies, and outright deception at the very highest levels of government.

So what can I do? First, I learned to use the internet, how to blog, etc. And I spent a long time reading, reading, left and right and in between. I am just one small voice. But there are many small voices just like mine. The first thing I did was to make a vow to speak the truth. About illegal immigration, about the hopeless state of public education, where parents have No rights, no real choices in the instruction of their children - are forced to sit quietly in despair as their children are exposed to poor instruction, to homosexual tolerance, to all kinds of tolerance. The individual is the smallest minority - Ayn Rand was right about that. But the rights of the individual are being denied even in K-12 schools.

I am just one of many. I have been hearing most of my life, that I am one vote, that my vote counts. No, I don't think so. That is another lie. Voting is just another way of deceiving us. The political parties don't matter. They just appear to be different, to stand for different things. America is being stolen from us, slowly, but surely. But the screws are about to get tightened. Our liberties are in deep, deep peril. I know I have to learn to think outside of the box.

My vote doesn't count, but my voice might make a difference.

"When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?"

I found some interesting quotes on Neal Boortz's website:

ON ABOLISHING INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ..." [President Bill Clinton, 'USA Today' March 11, 1993: Page 2A]

"Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all." [Nikita Khrushchev], February 25, 1956 20th Congress of the Communist Party

"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society." [Hillary Clinton, 1993]

"Fascist ethics begin ... with the acknowledgment that it is not the individual who confers a meaning upon society, but it is, instead, the existence of a human society which determines the human character of the individual. According to Fascism, a true, a great spiritual life cannot take place unless the State has risen to a position of pre-eminence in the world of man. The curtailment of liberty thus becomes justified at once, and this need of rising the State to its rightful position." [Mario Palmieri, "The Philosophy of Fascism" 1936]

ON EDUCATION
"Do we really think that a government-dominated education is going to produce citizens capable of dominating their government, as the education of a truly vigilant self-governing people requires?" [Alan Keyes]

And Be Sure To Watch This Little Feller...



Oh, and you might have missed this...New Orleans Cops illegally seize citizens's guns.